I knew it was coming….I woke up at 3:30am to M2 in my room saying “Time to get up?” No sweetie it is not go back to bed but no she climbs in with me and promptly falls asleep. I stare at the ceiling, yep I am one of those when I am up I am up. Finally 5am arrives and I pull myself out of bed and head down stairs. Precious few moments prior to kids waking where I can hear myself thinking and enjoy a cup of coffee.

At 5:30 I hear thump thump thump….M2 is pounding down the stairs from my room and Little Man is tearing up the stairs from his room. Ah well most of the coffee is done so let it begin. Chaos reigns for several minutes I will not lie as I handed out waffles and milk. They chatted happily at breakfast about the awesomeness of first day. I notice that M1 is playing with her food. I give her a quick hug and a few words of encouragement as it is her first day of high school . Yep it will be awkward but she can totally do it. She smiles at me, yeah maybe I am off but if I don’t tell her she can do it who will? I remind her she is smart a good with directions and she smiles for real and says “Oh yeah I am” then goes to get dressed.

About 200 prompts later, kids are dressed, teeth are brushed, hair is brushed and sneakers are on. M1 waits for the bus with her entourage of jealous little ones, after all she is the ONLY one who takes the bus. Bus comes and I wave at the driver, good same as last year. I round the kids up and set off for day care. I introduce Little Man to the Director, go over some basics with her. We have worked together for three years so we know each other which really does help when kids transition. M2 drags Little Man around introducing him to everyone. I say good bye and both tear over to me to give me hugs. I hug them tight and remind them to make a friend today. I take Little Bit and off we go.

I check the phone like a crazy person and even my coworkers laugh at me. I get emails from teachers but no big deal I emailed them first. I always introduce myself to all the teachers because I want them to know I support them teaching my children. When finally, 5pm arrives I rush to pick up dying to know how it went.

I get to the school daycare and the Director looks at me and smiles. She says “I am handing you back two very hot and sweaty kids. They have not stopped running since they came in” I am SOOOOOOO relieved. Little Man sees me and SCREAMS at the top of his lungs “I HAD A GREAT DAY!!!!!!!” The Director smiles and confirms it. I scoop him up and hug him all red faced and sweaty. I tell him how proud I am of him and he squirms to get down. M2 beams too and states she had a “Fantastic day” and so I hug her tight and reiterate my pride. We go to get M1 and they happily chatter about their day. We grab, M1 and ask about her day and she said it was good and that she didn’t get lost even once. I can’t help it I say out loud “Oh wait, what I was right??” She bursts out laughing and says “All right Mom don’t go there” I reiterate I was confident in her and she did not disappoint.

Making dinner, M1 helps the kids with some work sheets they have. We eat and discuss the day all are very excited. I have them shower and I notice both Little Man and M2 are off. I look more closely each of them has almost fallen asleep in the shower. I talk them through the process to keep them up and quickly shuffle them to bed. M1 mutters sleepily “I have a good week Momma” so I kiss her head and tell her “I hope so” I go to tuck in Little Man and he is already almost out. He whispers quietly “Did I do good?”and I tell him “No you did great!!” He smiles with his eyes less then half open. I grab Little Bit and walk upstairs.

Yep good day all around. I could not be more proud of all of them!!!!!